Earth Day is a great time to teach your child about the environment and the everyday things that they can do to make the planet a cleaner and safer place for everyone. Try these fun family activities to start a conversation with your kids.

At a very young age kids are ready and eager to learn about the natural world around them. Engage their curiosity with these outdoor activities in and around your neighborhood.

1. Take a Neighborhood Nature Walk
Take a walk around the neighborhood with your child and collect fallen leaves and flowers that you can identify when you get home with the use of field guides or online resources. (Remind your child not to touch plants or flowers without your or another adult's permission.)

What to Say to Kids:

Plants and trees in the neighborhood are pretty. Which ones do you like the best?

Do you think any birds, animals, or bugs eat the plants and leaves?

Do you think any of them might be used for an animal's home?

2. Head to the Zoo
Visit an aquarium, wildlife preserve, or zoo in your area and make a point of checking out the environmentally themed exhibits with your child.

What to Say to Kids:

The people who take care of wild animals have to know everything about what they need in order to live. What kinds of things do you think different animals need?

Why do people care about making sure places like forests or ponds stay clean?

3. Grow a Garden
Create a special garden patch, either outside or on a windowsill, for your child to tend.

What to Say to Kids:

We care for our flower garden just like we try to care for the world around us.

You water your plants because they need water in order to live and grow. What do we drink?

4. Pitch in for the Planet
As a family, you can find Earth Day activities to participate in, such as park cleanups and tree and flower bulb plantings.

What to Say to Kids:

We're helping keep the park clean so everyone can enjoy it.

We're planting bulbs so in the spring there will be flowers growing here.

Encourage your kids to recycle and to use their creativity to find new ways of reusing household items.

1. Draw Double Sided
Write, copy, and draw on both sides of the paper.

What to Say to Kids:

Look, the back of this paper is blank. Let's draw a picture on it!\

Paper comes from trees, so if we save paper, we help keep trees from being cut down. Trees are a place where birds and animals live, and they help keep the air clean, so it's important to help save trees.

2. Recycle Together
Make recycling a family routine and responsibility. Address the issue with every piece of packaging that you need to dispose of.

What to Say to Kids:

What is this made of? Can we recycle it? Which bin does this go in?

Recycled glass bottles and metal cans gets collected and made into new things that are used again.

When we put things in the recycling bins, they get reused and don't end up in the landfill.

If we fill up too much space in landfills with garbage, we'll run out of space for all the animals, plants, and people.

3. Get Crafty
Bring the idea of reuse home by making a recycled craft from NickJr.com. Kids are eager to see how old items can be transformed into new games and decorations.

What to Say to Kids:

By making this craft we are recycling.

Can you think of any other containers we could have used to make this project?

What could we do with some other empty containers, such as shoeboxes or paper bags, to reuse them?

Help your kids learn how to curtail the waste of energy and natural resources. Good habits started early will promote a lifetime of green living.

1. Be Mr. Fix-It
Your kids will love being your number-one helper while you fix any leaking faucets in and around your home. Ask him or her to help by holding and handing you the tools, and use the opportunity to talk about water conservation.

What to Say to Kids:

The water that would have been wasted by the leak is not being lost now–-and it will be there for us to use when we need it.

What are some ways to make sure we don't use more water than we need? Your child may need some prompting to get at the idea of turning off faucets when the water isn't needed, such as when brushing teeth.

2. Learn to Lose the Lights
Model a money-saving, planet-preserving habit for your child by showing, and talking about, your awareness of your own energy use. For example, turn off lights and other energy-sapping devices when they aren't needed, and tell your kids why you are doing this.

What to Say to Kids:

Electricity and other forms of energy cost money and are also easy to waste if we aren't paying attention.

It's hard on the environment to produce all that energy, so we want to do our part by not wasting energy.

What are some ways we can try to make sure we use only what we need? Your child may need prompting to understand such energy-saving ideas as closing the refrigerator door; turning off the TV and lights when they leave the room; not leaving the door to the outside open.